Blichmann BrewEasy

Check grain crush on roller mill with feeler gauge - .040 works great for me... Try filling mash tun from bottom up through drain valve... Bring strike water up to approximately 2" above false bottom and dough-in... Smooth out grain bed and slowly pump additional water up through the grain bed at approximately 1/2 to 3/4 gallons per minute... Once desired water level is set, adjust auto-sparge and cover tun with lid... Wait 10 mins and you should be good to recirculate and mash temp should be within 1 degree... When filling from bottom up grain bed achieves perfect saturation!

I've used this technique twice on my newly purchase 10g 240v Breweasy and it has worked perfect! All temp readings in unison, and efficiency averaging 73% with no stirring, small gypsum additions to achieve 100ppm calcium, and monitor/adjust mash ph to 5.4....

Cheers,
Brad

 

Yes. I have a mix of quick disconnects and TC's on my rig as well, but left the Blichmann threaded fitting on the Autosparge.

Simple process to heat the entire volume of water in the boil kettle to strike temperature, replace the drain with the line normally going to the Autosparge, turn the pump on and fill.

With the mash tun in place, it gets warmed as the water comes up to temperature so you don't lose anything from a cold pot (not that it would really matter because you are recirculating anyway).

After filling and closing the valve on the mash tun, I have found the time to put everything back in place is long enough for the grain to wet and you can then go straight to stirring. Much easier and no dough balls.

M

 

Cool - I think I'm going to give this a shot on my next brew-day.

I've also been kicking around the idea of using 1G less during the Mash, and at the end pumping 1G of fresh water at fly sparge temps from another vessel to try to increase my efficiency. Who knows, maybe it'll buy a few extra points. My BE is gas, so I figure I don't have to be as concerned about the depth in the kettle, as long as it's not so shallow as to scorch easily - given the short bursts of applied heat, I don't' think will be a problem.

 

Looking to attach a Therminator to a Tower of Power stand (NOT the LTE...). Any recommendations on how to mount it?

 

I'm considering purchasing the 10 gallon turnkey BIAB blichmann brew easy. I've been considering for awhile that vs the grainfather.

I think I'd like to go with the blichmann because I can get it gas powered instead of electric.

Does anyone have any opinions or tips before I make this investment?

 

Why? The top has an rtd?

 

Electric brewing is silent, and no more monitoring propane - one less thing to do on brew day! Because electric is so quite, you can carry on conversation or listen to music on low volume levels. The only downside is less portability, and the need to keep the boil coil submerged, approx 5 gallons of wort to cover. Boil / evaporation rates are more constant with electric, as you can dial in exact power levels to maintain constant boil. Build quality? Blichmann is superior gas or electric vs Grainfather!

 

I have old electrical in my house and it constantly shorts when I use my electric turkey fryer, so I figured a propane based system would be better for me.

 

What is the boil-off/evap rate? Is it the same for all sizes of the electric systems?

 

Hook up the discharge of the pump to the wort inlet, wort outlet to inlet of flow meter.

If my attached picture works (which was taken during a fly sparge, I was using the rims to maintain sparge water temp), the rims gets swapped out for the heat exchanger. I use a longer hose on the pump discharge, put the heat exchanger on the board. The longer hose allows you to capture most of the wort when you're done chilling, when you try it you'll see what I'm talking about.

I'll look for a picture when I'm chilling, can't seem to find one. I'm super busy with my brewery build, wont be brewing for a few more weeks, but I will try and post a pic then. I attached another pic that shows my set up during the mash, fyi. Super tight control, much quicker temp response than oem setup. Spend the additional $ on the rims, retune the controller. You'll be real happy with the results.

Check out my brewery Facebook if you're interested. Artisanal brew works.

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Hook up the discharge of the pump to the wort inlet, wort outlet to inlet of flow meter.

If my attached picture works (which was taken during a fly sparge, I was using the rims to maintain sparge water temp), the rims gets swapped out for the heat exchanger. I use a longer hose on the pump discharge, put the heat exchanger on the board. The longer hose allows you to capture most of the wort when you're done chilling, when you try it you'll see what I'm talking about.

I'll look for a picture when I'm chilling, can't seem to find one. I'm super busy with my brewery build, wont be brewing for a few more weeks, but I will try and post a pic then. I attached another pic that shows my set up during the mash, fyi. Super tight control, much quicker temp response than oem setup. Spend the additional $ on the rims, retune the controller. You'll be real happy with the results.

Check out my brewery Facebook if you're interested. Artisanal brew works.

 

Boil-off rates for me are right around 1.5 gallons per hour... I'm basically at sea-level, and I boil at 85% power output.

 

Can you explain the power output to me? I always just turn it to 99% or "On". Would the boil-off rate be higher with higher power? I would assume so but my temp on the BK seems to maintain at 212 F regardless of what power I put it on.

 

Those percentages refer to the PWM duty cycle. Since these controllers aren't rheostats that control the output voltage, the way they scale back power is to turn the power on and off in a proportion. E.g. if the controller has a cycle of 10 seconds, a 50% power means it turns on for 5 seconds, then off for 5 seconds, the repeats the cycle. 90% power means it's on for 9 seconds then off 1 second.

Yes, the higher the percentage power, the more vigorous the boil and therefore the more boil-off. 99% seems pretty high, depending on which system you have. You can probably scale it back considerably and maintain a decent boil. You don't need the wort to be nearly jumping out of the pot.

Your wort (mostly water) temperature should never be able to go above 212 (at sea level). Water greater than 212F is steam which escapes your pot.

 

scullerkurt, Thanks for the pics and taking the time to reply. I appreciate it. Not quite what I meant though. I'm talking about physically mounting it ON the T.O.P. - with additional bracket bolted to the TOP (where,how) and some sort of lock-in/quick-release with the L bracket that comes with the therminator... rather than have it simply sitting on the bench or floor.

Blichmann makes a bracket for the TOP LTE, but not for the full TOP.

 

Kurt,

Can you share the steps (or a link) on how you retune the TOP controller?

Thanks and good luck with the brewery!

Mike

 

+1 on this

 

See post 613. I have all the info there. Let me know how you make out!

 

Link to the mcrlab.com site for the doc fails. looks like they were acquired by Delta Electronics. Here's a new link:

http://www.deltaww.com/services/Dow...DTA,&title=DTA&dataType=2;8;&check=1&hl=en-US

There's a software package listed there too... may see what that provides. According to the site, the cable interface is RS-485, sending modbus ascii at 2400-38400 baud.

 

Kurt,

Thanks! will run an autotune later this week.

 

Thanks Kurt! I both forgot and then missed you had posted that earlier.

RIMS Rocket is mounted. Hoping to run some tests this weekend.

Mike

 

On my 5 gal system I get about 1 gph boil off at 72% power. Phx, so about 1000ft elevation.

 

What is the range of adjustment on the Brewmometers? tested both the BK and MT with just water against the TOP RTD and a lab thermometer. TOP and LAB match now that the TOP has been calibrated for TPOF and auto-tuned.
BK brewmometer is 2 deg low
MT brewmometer is 8 deg low
...than the lab thermometer in the same kettle just recirculating water.

No amount of turning the little adjustment nut on the back face makes any difference.

What have I screwed up?

 

Kurt, Fabrizio,

Is there a lock function that needs to be turned off on the PID?

Even if I hold the enter key for more than 3 seconds, I am not getting into the menus...

Thanks!

Mike

PS Fabrizio, not sure on the range of adjustment for the Brewmometer, however I have found them to be pretty accurate out of the box. I just converted a BoilerMaker over to a HLT, punching a second 1/2" hole for the RTD sensor while installing the safety float switch. With both the RTD and Brewmometer directly mounted in the HLT; the Brewmometer was within 1 degree of a traceable lab grade thermometer. The TOP PID was off by 4.8 degrees.

 

I don't recall if there was a lock feature. In a previous post I gave a link to a manual...think the link doesn't work anymore per another post? Sorry I'm not of help today...

 

Was wondering how the brewmometer adjustment worked in # of turns vs # of degrees. wondering if I have a defective one on my MT... no amount of turning alters the reading.

 

With the 5 Gal. electric, what power should a pils or kolsch boil at to avoid caramelization (assuming that's what happened)? I had a very nice 4.0-4.3 SRM kolsch that's now looking a lot more like 10 SRM after boiling for 60 min @ 75% power...

Didn't see anything even approaching burnt or carmelized on the coil but it was well-coated with something "pinkish".

 

That doesn't sound right. Mine was pretty sensitive to adjustment.

Sorry,

M

 

Thanks Kurt.

Rather than guess with the various instructions out there, I took my guy card in hand and asked for directions... Wes promises me I am OK though, because the nature of my questions were technical.

Kudos to Great Fermentations for their outstanding customer service. At Wes's request, I sent him a link to this thread and a quick video of what I was trying to accomplish late Friday. He then fired it off to Blichmann, who again was great in providing a quick answer.

The ToP controller is locked. To unlock, press the ENTER and NEXT keys at the same time.

Expanding on your original instructions Kurt, once the PID is unlocked, pressing enter again will take you to the Auto Tune screen.

1) ACT display should read: At, lower SET display: oFF
2) Press either the up or down arrow key. The ACT display should still read: At, but the lower should now display: on
3) Press enter again and the PID will go into Auto Tune mode as originally described.

Kurt, appreciate your time to post the instructions and answer questions along the way. Also can't say enough good things about Wes, Great Fermentations and Blichmann. Good customer service isn't dead!

Hopefully will get to put the system through its paces this weekend with the additional RIMS.

Thanks,

Mike

 

Hmmm... sounds like I'm probably screwed. Time to have my first round with Blichmann customer service...

Thanks Want2BS8ed.

 

Just pulled the trigger on the 10 gallon 240V from Great Fermentations (Thanks guys for answering my questions)

I am mainly a 5 gallon brewer, but went with the 10 gallon system for the flexibility. I will most likely brew 6.5 or 7 gallon batches to ensure Boilcoil is covered.

Can't wait!

 

Yeah, doesn't sound good. Let us know how it goes. I have never had to reach out directly to Blichmann (have always dealt with the shop where I purchased the item), however in my experience Blichmann has always been responsive and stood behind their product.

They ARE human... it took 3 try's to get a G2 kettle pre-punched with the correct hole size for a safety float, but they always stepped up, accepted responsibility and made it right in the end - not to mention I got some pretty cool swag as well!

Errors are unavoidable and can be forgiven, poor customer service cannot.

Hope your experience ends up being as positive and you can get back to brewing.

M

 

@skullerkurt , can you send me some directions on how you attached your RIMS rocket to the Top Stand? Did you drill into it? Mind sending a photo? THANKS!

 

Take a look at the photo on post 730. Yes, I did mount directly into the top stand. I 90 deg ell out of the pump discharge, short hose, 90 deg ell into rims. Remove the long cover on the top, it will expose all the wiring. It was a pretty simple install. There may be a slicker way to hook up the rims...only issue is you run the top stand as shown in my pics, rotated 90 degrees from what you are used to. Also, be careful not to whack your hands on the top bracket.

 

What's your efficiency look like when using the RIMS rocket? Are you adding all the water to the Mash Tun when you circulate it through the RIMS or add some to the BK after mashing?

 

Efficiencies are higher because you fly sparge. So amount of sparge water depends on how thick you wanna run your mash. I usually make a gallon or so of extra sparge water, I'll close the mt valve once target starting boil volume is achieved.

 

Do you have to fly-sparge or can you just recirculate through the RIMS and then drain all of the water into the BK? Do you mind telling the process of how you fly-sparge with RIMs?

 

Also, where did you get the RIMs rocket connector for the ToP?

 

I've read through most of this thread and I'm thinking of making the jump to AG with this system.

Any folks out there have a rough idea of how much propane is used per batch on the 10G and 20G systems?

 

Between 8-12 pounds of propane on the 20 gallon.